Housing Market Holds Firm

The national housing market, dominated by Sydney and Melbourne, held firm last week, with the uncertainty of the federal election no longer clouding the outlook for investors.

For the second week in a row, more than 70 per cent of auctions ended in a sale, according to figures from market analytics firm CoreLogic.

After climbing above 70 percent - to 70.6 per cent - for the first time since March the previous week, the average clearance rate for the five mainland state capitals hit 71.6 per cent for the week ending Sunday.

Clearance rates were above 75 per cent in both Sydney and Melbourne but averaged just below 50 per cent for the other centres, confirming the big two are carrying the national market at the moment.

Price movements over the past week were small and patchy, with Adelaide and Sydney up 0.2 per cent, Melbourne up by 0.1 per cent and both Perth and Brisbane/Gold Coast edging back by 0.1 per cent.

But annual rises paint a familiar picture. After rising 1.1 per cent over the past four weeks, Sydney has clearly leapfrogged Melbourne as the centre with the fastest annual growth - 9.5 per cent - compared with the Victorian capital's 7.6 per cent.

Brisbane (4.7 per cent) and Adelaide (4.2 per cent) are next, with Perth (down 4.0 per cent) still struggling to shrug off the dead weight of the end of the mining investment boom.

The average price rise across the five capitals was 0.1 per cent for the week, with an annual growth rate of 6.6 per cent almost entirely accounted for by a 5.8 per cent rise since the start of this year.

The CoreLogic figures follow a report late last week from National Australia Bank, which showed sentiment among residential property professionals had dipped in the June quarter ahead of July 2 election, but confidence for the coming two years has risen markedly.